Converted

by Shaded Changeling

Chapter 40: Family Day

Shade had only once before gone down into a Changeling Hive, and while it was fascinating to look around, it was by far one of the creepiest places he had been in a long time, even though he knew this was a medical Hive.

“Alright Shade,” Cytes said, levitating a document across the table to Shade. “All you need to do is sign at the bottom, and you take full responsibility for Mirror for the remainder of the day.”

Shade nodded and grabbed the quill in his magic, and shakily wrote his name. “I still need to work on it…” Shade said under his breath.

Cytes looked over the document. “Everything seems to be in order,” She lowered her glasses to look over the document. “I’m expecting her back here by eight o’ Clock tomorrow morning, otherwise I’ll contact the Royal Guard.”

Shade nodded. “I understand Cytes.” Shade replied. “I only intend to show her around for the day, let her spend it with Echo.”

“Didn’t Celestia ask you to help with something?” Cytes asked, levitating the document back to Shade.

“She did,” Shade replied. “I helped with the interrogations a bit, but then one of them started talking about Meadow… I couldn’t control myself.”

Cytes nodded. “I understand. I am going to put a scout on you for a while, just to be safe, if any Royal Guards try anything, just show them the document. Aside from that, I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.”

Shade nodded, placing the document in the saddle bags he borrowed from Twilight for the day. “Anything else Cytes?” He asked.

“Nothing else comes to mind,” Cytes replied. “Just make sure that she comes back.”

Shade nodded before getting off the chair and walking towards the door.

“Where is the Nymph by the way?” Cytes asked. “I didn’t hear tell of her arrival.”

“She is back at the apartment.” Shade replied. “I left her in the care of Antenna, I didn’t want her to get involved with whatever was going on at the castle.”

“Understandable,” Cytes replied. “Mirror will be waiting for you outside the holding cells.”

Shade nodded to her before walking out of the room and heading towards the holding cells. His mind busily buzzing with thoughts about Meadow, but he shook these away, No matter what they did… I can fix it… So instead he thought about the day he hoped to have. It was much less a day for him, he was hoping to give Mirror some more time with Echo, because of just how happy the filly was around her.

When he made it to the holding cells, two Changeling Guards were leading Mirror to him.

Shade held the document up to them, and they looked over it before nodding. “Everything is in order.” The Guard said raising their spears. “Don’t make us regret this.”

Shade motioned for Mirror to follow him before turning back to the Guards. “Don’t worry boys, I won’t.”

Mirror looked at him. “Why did you do this?” She asked. “I’m still a convict for helping Bloodpool…”

“Yeah… but you make Echo happy.” Shade replied. “Plus, you’ve shown me that I can trust you, I don’t think you would do anything to hurt her chances of a normal life. Or as normal as she can get, being a Changeling and all.” Shade looked at Mirror to see her surprised.

“I-I don’t know what to say…”

“Thank you works fine.” Shade said with a slight smile.

“Thank you.” Mirror replied. “My name is Midnight Glint in my disguise.”

“Sunstreak,” Shade replied. “I can take you to Echo; she’s being looked after by a caretaker back where we’ve been staying.”

“How long do I get to see her for?”

Shade smiled. “For the rest of the day.” He said, and looked to his side to see Mirror’s shocked face.

“How the Hive did you pull that off?” She asked surprised.

“Well I talked to Princess Celestia, and she Okayed it, provided that I help with the interrogations of the prisoners from the raid last night.”

Mirror glanced up at him. “You find out anything?”

Shade shook his head. “Nothing useful… I really don’t want to talk about it.” Shade replied. “So… How have you been?”

---

Midnight Glint turned out to be a nearly pitch black unicorn, with green eyes that matched the color of her magic, so there would be no strange questions about the odd magic color. Her mark was that of a silver star, contrasting the near total darkness of her mane and coat. Which would have been good were the buildings not white and gold, making the two of them stick out rather badly. Sunstreak had been on guard making sure that nobody around even thought it possible for her to be a Changeling, luckily though they all seemed too busy with their daily lives.

Sunstreak led her right to the Apartment, taking none of the side streets and just talking about the weather or what the venders had. When they both got to the apartment complex, Sunstreak turned to Midnight.

“Alright… so I haven’t exactly told the others about this…” Shade admitted. “So expect there to be a few questions before we are allowed to just go…”

Midnight nodded. “So long as I get to see my daughter.”

“Whatever happened to her father?” Shade asked. “I mean…you mentioned that he died, but how?”

Midnight looked at the ground. “We were in Everfree, and a Timber wolf found us… He told me to run, so I did. I found Canterlot, and waited outside the cities gate for him…” She sighed. “Echo was only a few weeks old at the time… She never met him… After a few hours, I gave up, and I managed to get a place from Cytes, and I made my life with Echo.”

Sunstreak nodded in understanding. “You don’t need to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

Midnight sighed. “Thanks… I don’t want to remember what I found after…”

Sunstreak looked at her curiously. “Don’t Changeling bodies burn up?”

Midnight looked up. “Normally, yes. But his horn was broken off in the fight. Without that, the magic can’t get to a focal point, so it just…dissipates. A strong enough magical surge could cause a jumpstart, but usually the horn needs to remain intact. Many Changelings also believe it is a bridge to the afterlife, keeping it intact means you get to go on after death.”

“Huh… Interesting…” Sunstreak said, walking up to the apartment door. “Alright we’re here.” Sunstreak pulled out the key to the apartment from the saddlebag and opened the door.

Inside, Twilight was talking to Candy Floss while she was taking care of Sunspot. Sunstreak walked in first. “Hey Sunspot. I have a surprise for you.”

The filly looked up from Candy Floss’ forelegs. “Daddy?” She said. “What is it?”

Sunstreak stepped to the side, letting Midnight walk in. Sunspot took a look at the Unicorn, before jumping out of Candy’s hooves and running up to Midnight, hugging her. “Mommy!”

Midnight hugged Sunspot. “Hi Echo…” She said. “Has Daddy been taking good care of you?”

“Uh-huh.” Sunspot replied, removing her disguise. “I missed you Mommy.”

“I missed you too Echo…” Midnight replied.

“Shade…” Twilight said, surprised before getting angry. “What is she doing here?”

“Twilight… I know this looks bad… But I came to an agreement with Celestia. She allowed me to take Midnight Glint here into my custody for the day. Before you say anything, I did it so that they could spend some time together.” Sunstreak pointed at Echo and Mirror. “They haven’t had a chance at a long reunion in a while, so I wanted to give them some family time. I’ve taken full responsibility for them.”

Twilight was about to say something, but Sunstreak took out the document Cytes gave him and held it up to her. “I took full responsibility, Celestia has approved it, and I signed it, until eight o’ clock tomorrow morning she is under my protection.”

Twilight looked stunned. “What…She… I… Okay. If Celestia thinks it’s a good Idea, then I’ll listen.” Shade put the document back in the saddlebag. “So what is your plan?”

Shade looked at her. “I…Honestly don’t have one. At least not until sunrise… I just plan on walking around the city with them, give them a chance to catch up.” He leaned in to whisper in her ear. “Plus… I need to clear my head, I almost killed another Changeling…”

“You-”

Shade shook his head. “I don’t want them to freak out, he was talking about Meadow, I got angry, if that suppression spell wasn’t on me, I would have killed him.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “What did he say?”

“They drained Meadow using my Sunstreak form.” Shade replied. “They… Essentially tortured her. Using MY form… It made me angry… I need to clear my head…”

Twilight nodded. “Just… Make sure they don’t start a panic.”

“Mirror has been living here for almost three years, she should be fine, and Echo has both of us to protect her, we should be fine.”

“I would feel better if you waited for Rainbow to…”

“No. I want them to have some time together, we need to get going, I promised her that I wouldn’t take too long here.”

“Daddy! Are we going to the park today?” Echo asked.

“Maybe Echo… Maybe later. Right now we need to get going. Unless you would rather spend less time with Mirror?”

“Alright Daddy!” Echo said before turning into Sunspot. “I’m ready Daddy!”

Shade transformed back into Sunstreak. “Alright then, Midnight?”

“I’m ready.” She lifted Sunspot onto her back with her magic.

“I’ll talk to you later Twilight.” Sunstreak said walking back out of the room.

---

Sunstreak honestly had no idea where to take them, he had seen enough of the locations around with Twilight and Rainbow Dash, but he had never really seen any appeal to go back to them. So he decided to ask Midnight if she recommended anything.

“To be honest… I spent most of my time either at the house or at the park…” Midnight replied. “Caring for Sunspot while you were off hunting treasure or whatever.”

“Magical Artifacts.” Sunstreak replied annoyed, they had to keep the appearance of a couple, including all the bickering. “And I didn’t know you were pregnant. I spent three years out of the city. If you had sent one letter to me I would have come over on my own.”

“Okay… I’d admit… that was my fault… I thought you would call it off if you knew…”

Sunstreak placed his wing over her body. “I would never leave you…”

A few minutes later, they were in a more bustling section of the city, allowing them to be drowned out by the rest of the ponies, meaning they could drop the couple act for a bit.

“So in all seriousness… Do either of us know anything about this city?”

“I know plenty… I just know nothing about touring it.” Midnight replied. “I lived here for three years after all. Mostly I just stayed in the house or headed to the park to gather some love… Sunspot couldn’t transform for the first few years, so I had to keep a close eye on her.”

“Understandable…” Sunstreak replied. “What about you Spot?” He said to the small Pegasus. “Where do you think we should go?”

The filly looked around, trying to see over the heads of all the ponies. “How about that?”

Sunstreak followed where she was pointing, it looked like some kind of tower. “Hm…” Sunstreak replied. “Maybe… I suppose we have nothing better to do.”

“Yay!” Sunspot replied happily “Can we go now?”

Both Sunstreak and Midnight rolled their eyes. “Alright. Sunspot… Let’s go.”

---

The tower was an interesting building, the inner architecture was winding and elaborate, however compared to the inner workings of the castle, it was clearly nowhere near it. However compared to the other buildings, it was impressive.

Up at the top of the tower, the sun had begun to climb down from its pinnacle; the three of them could see nearly the entirety of Canterlot, including the surrounding forest and valley.

“Look at that view…” Sunstreak said. “I haven’t seen something this good since watching the sun rise over the city.”

“I have to agree…” Midnight replied. “It is beautiful.”

Sunspot had climbed onto the ledge and was looking at the sky and surrounding area. “Wow…” She said, watching some Pegasus fly around. “Daddy, can I fly like them?”

“Maybe Spot. Just not right now. You’ll learn eventually.” Sunstreak ruffled the little filly’s mane.

“Sunspot… don’t stand too close to the edge.” Midnight cautioned. “We don’t want you to fall.”

“Okay Mommy.” Sunspot replied.

“Oh don’t be so nervous.” Sunstreak replied. “If she does fall, I’ll catch her.”

Midnight didn’t looked pleased. “I don’t know, it’s not that long of a fall…”

“Have some faith in me.” Sunstreak replied. “I’m pretty quick.”

“I don’t want her to…” Midnight’s eyes shot open. “ECHO!”

Sunstreak turned around and saw Sunspot walking along the ledge of the tower, when her hoof landed on a slightly crumbling section of the tower, causing her to lose her footing and slip.

Sunstreak wasted no time in acting, he hurled himself off the building and dashed towards the filly, flapping his wings as fast as they would allow, when he caught up to the filly, he turned himself in the air to slow himself enough to avoid whiplash, before heading straight back up.

“HELP!” Shade’s eye twitched at how loud the signal was.

“I got you Spot.” Sunstreak said, flying up to the top of the tower. When he placed her down, he found Midnight hugging him. “Okay… You can stop crying now…”

“Thank you!” Midnight said, grabbing Sunspot in her magic. “We are going to have a long talk about this Echo.”

Sunstreak wormed his way out of Midnight’s grip, Pinkie Pie’s Death grips finally helped for once. He then looked at Midnight and Sunspot, Sunspot looked sorry for what she did.

“Midnight… I think she understands.” Sunstreak said. “Sunspot, are you going to try that again?”

Sunspot shook her head.

“Midnight… She isn’t in the Hive anymore… Don’t treat her like she still is.” Sunstreak walked up to her. “Midnight… She’s scared.”

Midnight looked at Sunstreak then back at Sunspot, and sighed. She let her magical grip on Sunspot drop and pulled her into a hug. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again Echo.”

“Okay Mommy I promise.” Sunspot replied. “I won’t do it again.”

“I would hope not,” Sunstreak replied. “Remind me to teach you to use those wings on your back when we get back.”

Sunspot looked happily at him. “Really?”

“Unless Midnight here would be against it?” Sunstreak said, looking towards the pitch black Unicorn.

Midnight smiled. “No… I think it would be a wonderful idea.”

“YAY!” Sunspot replied happily, her small wings flapping quickly.

“Now, I think that’s plenty of excitement for the day.” Sunstreak said. “How about the park?”

Sunspot jumped happily at this, “Park! Park! Park!”

Sunstreak chuckled at the small Pegasus’ joy. “Alright Spot, I know you’re happy, but try to contain it until we get to the park.”

“You clearly don’t know your own daughter.” Midnight replied. “Asking her to contain excitement is like asking an egg not to hatch.”

Sunspot smiled at her mother before bouncing around the two of them. “I’m going to fly!” She said happily flapping her small wings quickly.

Sunstreak laughed at the small filly’s excitement. “I see what you mean.” He said. “Let’s get going before she explodes with excitement.”

---

Sunspot was too excited to sit still; she hopped up and down next to the two of them as they walked down the streets, drawing a few odd looks from some of the ponies around the streets. Sunstreak managed to calm her down by promising to start teaching her to fly when they got to the park.

The park was less crowded than the last time Sunstreak was there, he just chalked it down to being a weekday. “So Sunspot,” Sunstreak said to the little Pegasus, “You ready to fly?”

The Pegasus continued to hop happily. “Yes!”

“Alright Spot.” Sunstreak said. “Calm down a bit. I need to give you a starter course.”

Sunspot stopped hopping and sat down on the grass. “Alright Daddy. I’m ready.”

Sunstreak stood in front of her, opening up his wings. “First things first, staying airborne.”

Sunstreak began to explain how to fly to Sunspot, mentioning the wing speed she would need to use, and even helping her steady herself in the air, and after a few hours of training, Sunstreak decided to let her try and at least stay hovering on her own.

“Remember Spot,” Sunstreak said, watching the filly concentrate. “Keep those wings flapping.”

Sunspot nodded, and looked at Sunstreak, she let out a small breath, closed her eyes, and lightly pushed off the ground. Flapping her small wings quickly.

Sunspot kept her eyes closed as she thought she should feel her hooves connecting to the ground, she didn’t. Slowly, she opened one of her eyes to see Sunstreak smiling at her.

“You’re flying Echo.” Midnight said. “I’m so proud of you.”

Sunspot looked down at the ground, to see she was hovering a foot off the ground. A smile quickly reached over her face. “I’m flying Daddy!”

“Good job Spot, now try to fly over to Midnight.” Sunstreak said. “Don’t go too fast though, keep your balance.”

Sunspot turned and slowly flew over to Midnight, keeping herself steady before wrapping her hooves around her mother. “Mommy, can you teach me magic? Like how Daddy is teaching me to fly?”

Midnight let a tear roll down her face. “Of course Echo… I’d be happy to, but we are going to have to do it in private. Don’t want your father learning any of it.”

Sunstreak chuckled. “Afraid I’ll leave you once I find out how you use magic?”

“No.” Midnight replied. “I just don’t want you making your life any easier.”

“Oo… That one stung.” Sunstreak replied. “Alright Sunspot, I think that’s enough training for today. Just go and enjoy yourself, but stay close. Don’t want your mother to have a heart attack.”

Sunspot landed easily before nodding at Sunstreak and running off towards a field.

“Thank you for teaching her.” Midnight said. “I’m not one for flying.”

“Is that why you chose a Unicorn?” Sunstreak asked.

“Well… that and two other reasons.” Midnight replied. “Having my magic helped me keep a hold of Echo, and whenever I was in trouble, I prefer being able to use my magic in combat.”

“You ever have to?” Sunstreak asked. “Use it on combat I mean.”

“Once…” She replied. “A couple of stallions tried to make their move on me in an alleyway. They wouldn’t be trying that again for a while.”

Sunstreak whistled. “I hope that they recovered.”

“Eventually.” Midnight replied. “Last I heard they still had the burn marks.”

“Okay… Don’t want to hear about that anymore.”

“Why did you choose a Pegasus?” Midnight asked. “You work at Cloudsdale?”

Sunstreak shook his head. “I chose it because I couldn’t do magic, and I always preferred flying anyway. My eye drew some attention at first, but eventually the ponies understood.”

Midnight and Sunstreak just kept talking while watching Sunspot play with a few of the other foals, eventually the sun began to set and the other foals started to leave.

“Mommy,” Sunspot said. “Are you going to have to leave again?”

Midnight hugged the filly. “Yes Sunspot. I’m sorry; I’m still in trouble for helping that mean Changeling.”

Sunstreak looked up towards the moon, rising into the sky, and then he looked back over towards the waterfall. “Come on you two, I want to show you something.”

Sunstreak led the two of them through the small tree line, and emerged in front of the waterfall, the moon perfectly reflecting off the waters, casting a light glow over the clearing.

“Wow…” Midnight said. “This looks beautiful…” She looked around the clearing, looking at the way the trees happily accepted the light.

“Shiny…” Sunspot said, looking at the waterfall, the perfect reflection of the moon in it. “So pretty…”

“It is, isn’t it.”

Sunstreak looked over towards the voice, and saw the young lime green mare he saw a few days before walking out of the tree line. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“No… No it’s fine.” Sunstreak replied.

“Is this your wife?” She asked, looking at Midnight.

“Yes I am.” Midnight said. “Do you know her?”

Sunstreak was going to answer, but he looked back at Sunspot, who seemed to be worried about something. “Sunspot, what’s wrong?”

Sunspot pointed at the lime green mare, and Sunstreak felt a shiver down his back.

“Mirror.” Sunstreak said. “Stay behind me.”

“So you know?” The mare asked, looking between the two. “Well there is no point in hiding it then.” The mare motioned for someone to come out of the tree line, and Sunstreak heard Sunspot screech in fright.

Sunstreak turned around to see a couple of Changeling walk out, they fired beams of magic at both Midnight and Sunspot, but Sunstreak shed his disguise and put up a shield spell.

“Mirror! I need some help!” Shade said, before a third beam hit him in his side.

He heard Mirror scream and looked up to see Echo being held up in a magical field. “Let her go!”

Shade pushed himself up, but before he could move to help, he felt himself being pushed into a tree and held there. “Well isn’t this a familiar meeting?”

YOU! “SPINE!”

Echo was levitated over to the grip of two Changelings, one of which held a bladed foreleg up to Echo’s throat. “Let Echo GO!” Mirror shouted, her horn beginning to glow.

“Put that magic away.” Spine said, stepping out of the tree line, “Or I order my men to kill her.”

Mirror ground her teeth before her magic died down. “Now let her go!”

“I don’t think so.” Spine replied. “You see, the Changeling you are in the company of is a wanted criminal. And you are addressing a General.” Spine walked up to Shade. “Hello again Nymph, I must say you have been doing spectacular work.”

“GO TO HELL!”

“Oh come now…” Spine replied. “I’m complimenting you. After all, you did help us capture that filly, and now, now you’ve brought us a deserter.”

“I’m no deserter!” Mirror replied angrily. “I was allowed to leave!”

“Not according to the new Queen.” Spine replied. “And now I see why Nymph here was so defensive of that filly, he has his own.”

“I swear to god Spine, if you hurt them!” Shade said, trying to teleport, but whatever was holding him prevented him from using magic.

“Oh… I will. You know, when I heard from my spy that you had grown attached to another young one, I was thrilled. When I heard it was a Changeling, a wanted Changeling no less, I decided to come myself.”

“Don’t you dare!” Shade said.

“Oh… I will. She will make a wonderful addition to our little collection.” Spine replied. “However her,” Spine looked towards Mirror. “You are wanted dead, so I will be happy to oblige.”

“No!” Shade shouted.

Mirror was knocked down by a large Changeling, which held her in place; his foreleg shifted into a blade and stabbed her right through her stomach.

Echo screamed before being silenced by one of the Changelings holding her.

“I believe we’re done here.” Spine said, “Torch, deal with him.” In a flash the rest of the Changelings vanished, leaving only Shade, a bleeding Mirror, and another Large Changeling.

Shade fell to the ground and ran over to Mirror. “Come on Mirror. Stay with me.”

“E-Echo…” She said weakly. “I-I need…”

“Mirror, stay with me… I’ll get help.”

“No…” Mirror replied. “I-I’m too far gone…”

“Don’t say that… Come on, Echo needs you.”

“Sha-”She cringed “Ade… please… Break it…” She leaned her head towards Shade. “Please… I-I don’t want to be alone in the afterlife…”

“No… Mirror I’m going to get you out of here, just hold on.” Shade said.

“No… Shade… Please… Respect a dying…Changeling’s last wish…” Mirror’s eyes began to dim. “Break it…”

Shade nodded, and reached up, placing it in one of the holes on his leg.

“Do it…” Shade pulled down hard on the horn, snapping it off. “Thank…You… Please… Take…Care of… Her…”

“I need you to stay with me… Come on, don’t give up. Echo needs you.”

“I-I-I’m…cold…so…cold…I…” Shade felt her go limp.

“Mirror? Mirror! Come on!” Shade shook her, though he already knew it was too late. “I can’t do this alone!”

The Changeling from behind Shade laughed. “Oh… This is going to be great.” He began to walk up to Shade.

Shade began shaking, looking down at the body of Mirror. When the Changeling got close, Shade stopped. “That was the last one…”

“What in Ceymi’s name are you talking about?” Torch replied, his forelegs sharpening. “But you are right, that will be the last thing you see.”

“That was the LAST FUCKING ONE!”

Shade whipped around punching Torch in his face sending him back. His eyes had turned red, and he was not playing around anymore. He jumped on the Changeling pinning him to the ground. “I am going to have some fun with you.” His forelegs became blades, each one burning with green fire. “THIS IS FOR EVERYONE YOU’VE HURT YOU FUCKER!”

The screams echoed into the night, puncturing the stony silence, the green flames broke through the canopy. Some say that they even saw a spout of fire come from the park.

Author's Note:

Shit's getting bad now...
What will Shade do now? How will he handle himself? How did Spine get in there?

Comments

[Dravkwn]

Please let the story murder Spine soon in some horrible fashion.

[Shaded Changeling]

6987300 No Spoilers

[Will-o-Wisp]

OH FOR THE LOVE OF- WHY DID YOU KILL OFF MIRROR?! You always know how to play with my emotions, you're a great writer in my book.

[Kuno]

You are by far my fav active writer. You have great quality in the story, and 1-3 chapters out daily.

Actually, that brings up a fine question. Is this all you do? Like don't you have a job or something?

[Shaded Changeling]

6987874 Well... Actually this story was written around 4 moths ago. So everything is basically finished. I just need to proofread the chapters I also just like writing these stories, MLP has so much Lore and story going on in the background, it leaves so much open for interpretation. Also..
I'm glad you're enjoying it.

[Razzy]

Mirror no... How could you kill her off?

[Cursed Quill]

6988583

4 moths ago

well, guess I know how many more Lovelings are going to die.

[Black--Soul]

Fuck... That was totaly necessary